High School Life
by linwe viper emily nolatari
Summary: How would Kenshin's tragic romance w/ Tomoe play out if instead of the Meiji Era they were in modern day high school and Kaoru and the rest were middle schoolers? Please read and review! Please give it a chance, read and review! Thank you!
1. Chapter 1

High School was like the melting pot of cliques

So I decided to set this story in contemporary high school in the U.S, so that's why there's a lack of honorifics and the names are in reversed order.

I've been wanting to do this for a long time now…so without further ado, enjoy…

p.s. I don't own RK.

High School was like the melting pot of cliques.

"Hey look it's the resident emo kid." My friend joked as he took a seat next to me.

I shot him a death glare. "Shut up _I am not__ emo_." I responded.

"Hahaha…well if you are not emo, then why do you always wear that melancholic look on your face?"

"That's just how my face is." I retorted, but before I could say more I saw her. She was a senior and the school's resident ice queen, but that didn't bother me, I loved her.

"Dude stop staring, no matter how much you drool over her, it's never going to happen." My friend tells me putting a hand on my shoulder.

"I'm gonna go get something to drink." I say suddenly not wanting to be in the presence of any of my friends.

"Yeah go, go." They tell me giving me a push.

Since I started High School and I laid eyes on her, my heart started pounding like crazy, I guess you can say it was love at first sight, but I had never even spoken to her.

I decided to take it slow and drink my soda without the constant jokes my friends did at my expense and headed to an isolated place.

I did not realize that the can had been shaken when it dropped from the vending machine and when I opened it the liquid flew in all directions.

"It seems to be raining soda." A low silky voice said leaving me stunned.

There she was, standing in front of me, the girl of my dreams covered in soda.

"I am so sorry! I didn't see you there." I told her thinking she was going to lash out at me, but instead she just smiled slightly and nodded.

"Nothing happened; I'll just go to the nurse's office to get cleaned up." She said with that same low voice.

"I…I'll walk you over." I said still trying to make up for throwing soda at her.

"That is not necessary." She tells me, but I keep insisting.

When she finally relents she thanks me. "Thank you."

I had imagined her very differently. Since she was known as the "Ice Queen" I thought she was a total bitch, but in reality she was just a normal girl, maybe a little shy, but nothing alluding to her title.

We walked in silence. I was so nervous that I didn't know what to say, so I said nothing.

The high school shared land with the middle school and as we were walking I heard someone call me from the other side.

I turned around to see my ten-year-old neighbor waving at me.

"Are you in recess?" I asked her walking up to the fence that separated both campuses.

"Yes!" she answered me in her usual cheeriness.

"Oh that's nice. " I tell her.

"So who is she?" Kaoru asks me pointing at Tomoe, whom I had forgotten for a moment.

"I'm so sorry I was so rude." I tell Tomoe frantically.

She nods her head. "I am Tomoe Yukishiro." She tells my neighbor, "It's nice to meet you."

I see Kaoru eyeing her suspiciously, "I'm Kaoru Kamiya." She finally responds.

"Well I'll see you after school." I tell her before going on our way to the nurse's office.

"Is she related to you?" Tomoe asks me.

"She's my next door neighbor and I'm in charge of walking her to and from school."

She doesn't say any more and we walk the rest of the way in silence. I can hear the murmurs of the people around us as they see us walking together, but she doesn't seem to notice.

"So uh…" I start saying something, but I don't know what to say.

"Yes what is it?"

"Ah…you're a senior right?" I ask stupidly.

She giggles a little, "Yes I am a senior."

"Ah…I'm a freshmen." I tell her feeling not only stupid, but young too.

"Thank you for accompanying me." She tells me as we reached our destination.

"It was nothing; it was my fault after all." I tell her.

"I owe you drink." And with that she entered the office leaving me perplexed.

I returned to my friends in a much better mood than when I left them.

"Where the hell were you?" my friend Soji asked me.

"We thought you have gone off to harvest the oranges and make your own juice." Hajime said.

"I didn't go for an orange juice, and…"

"Look it's the shorty that was walking with the 'Ice Queen'." A group of kids came along sneering before I could tell my friends about that.

"Do you have a problem with that?" I retort nastily.

"Don't get cocky kid, there's no way that a girl like her would ever turn around and look at you seriously."

"Well that certainly is none of your damn business now is it?" I respond. I could feel their anger rising and knew I should shut up before I got in trouble and got in a fight I really didn't want to have.

"You damn puck!" but it was too late, they had already thrown the first punch.

I easily dodged their punch and grabbed his arm, not willing to return the punch and end up getting in trouble.

My friends had the same thoughts and were desperately trying to hold them back without retaliating.

In the end a teacher came along and broke up the fight, with the other kids being the ones that got suspended.

"Well that was a close one." Hajime said.

"So what the hell were those idiots bitching about?" Soji asked.

"I was about to tell you about it. When I went to get myself a soda I accidently spilled it all over Tomoe and I was just walking her to the nurse's office. I guess they were jealous."

"Who wouldn't be jealous? Do you know how many guys in this school fantasize over her and here comes a short little freshmen to wisk her away, from now on you are going to have to cover your ass." Soji warns me.

"What do you mean 'wisk her away'? It's not like anything happened and besides I'm not scared of being attacked, I can take perfect care of myself."

"That may be, but I don't think Seijuro would be too happy to know that you are fighting." Hajime pointed out.

"In any case, it was him who taught me how to fight in the first place." I tell him ruefully.

"Aha! There you go putting on the damn pathetic expression again! And you dare tell me you are not emo! Show me your arms!" suddenly Soji exclaimed making the tense moment pass.

"Ah shut up, my arms are fine, my brain is fine too, and I'm sorry if I put a pathetic expression on, that's just how my face is."

"I never said anything about your brain being messed up, but now that you mention it…"

"Can we please change the subject?" Hajime asks, "Did anyone do the English homework?"

"Homework!?" Soji and I exclaim.

So not much happened in this chapter, sorry, I promise the next one will pick up, this was just the basic premise.


	2. Chapter 2

I woke up in the middle of the night when I felt something cold touch my skin.

I rolled over on my side and got out of bed.

My little brother was curled up in a ball sobbing slightly.

"Kenji…Kenji, it's alright." I tell him, trying to comfort him. "C'mon let's get you into some dry clothes." I take him out of bed while he's still sobbing.

"I'm sorry." He tells me.

I massage my temples before assuring him that I am not angry at him for wetting the bed.

Ever since our parents died 4 years ago, I have been taking care of my little brother who is 9 years younger than me.

I've gotten used to being woken up in the middle of the night by his bed-wetting, but the doctor has said that if he doesn't outgrow that he will have a lot of self-esteem issues later, so there are nights when I lose my temper, hence his sobbing and apologizing.

"So what happened" I ask him.

"I was dreaming that I couldn't find you and I screamed and I didn't see you."

I pat his head, "Hey look, I'm here ok?"

He nods slightly before drifting off to sleep again. I on the other hand, cannot fall back asleep so readily.

My mind wanders trying to fall asleep again and I replay that day's events.

'Kaoru!' I called for my next-door neighbor.

Since we live next to each other, I have become a sort of unofficial babysitter for her.

'Hold you horses, I'm going!' she calls back to me. She had been talking with friends by the school gates.

'I need to pick up Kenji.' I tell her.

'Why? Didn't Mrs. Ramirez go for him today?' she asks me.

Mrs. Ramirez is the lady that looks after Kenji while I get home from school.

'She had things to do, so she took Kenji with her and I told her I'd pick him up after school.'

Kaoru was cranky because I made her wait one hour for me to get out of school and then I was pushing her to hurry up, but she got even crankier when she saw Tomoe at the front of school.

'Uh…hello Tomoe.' I greeted the older girl, wondering what she was doing there.

'Hello.' She responded in that same low voice of hers.

'Can we leave now?' A brunette kid standing next to her whined.

She rummaged through her bag and pulled out a can. 'I'm sorry about your drink at lunch, I hope I got the right drink.' She says handing me said can.

I was awestruck and speechless. I could not believe that she had waited at the front gates just so she could hand me a can of soda.

'Thanks, but it was no big deal. I was the one that spilled it all over you.'

'It was my fault. I knew that you had not noticed me there, but I did not do anything to alert you of my presence.'

At that same precise moment Kaoru made a gagging sound and the boy standing next to Tomoe pulled on her bag to get her attention.

'I have to get going, but I'll see you tomorrow.' She said.

Err,err,err…..

It took me a while to realize that my alarm was going off.

Was it seven already?

I was having such a good dream that I didn't want it to end, but it was time to face reality.

I woke up Kenji and helped him get dressed.

Sometimes he was a little brat, today was one of those mornings when nothing was going as planned.

"What's the hold up?" my cousin screamed out at me.

"Nothing, Kenji's just being a brat."

Seijuro walked into the room and looked at Kenji warily, "Really?"

"Just leave, we'll be ok." I tell him.

"Oh I'm not worried about that, but well…" he drifts off…"Oh whatever." And he walked out of the room again.

Since our parents died we moved in with our cousin, Hiko Seijuro. He was a difficult guy to work with sometimes, but for the most part we stayed out of each other's hair.

Finally I managed to get Kenji to cooperate with me and got going.

"Kenji, I promise today I'll play with you." I told him on our way to school.

"Can I come too?" Kaoru pipped in.

"Why do you even ask? You know Kenji likes you, probably even more than me." I tell her.

"Yay!" she cheers.

"Ok Kenji, say bye to Kaoru."

His eyes start to water up, but Kaoru knows how to handle my little brother.

"Ah, ah, Kenji, no crying, or I won't play with you."

The brat actually pays attention to her and smiles feebly while running and waving at her.

"Gee, Kaoru, maybe he should sleep over at your house."

Her eyes light up, "Can I go sleep over tonight?"

I didn't pay much attention to it and absent-mindedly agreed to it.

To me, Kaoru was just my cute-next door neighbor who I thought of as a little sister, for the most part I ignored the fact that she had a crush on me.

"Thanks!"

"Yeah whatever." I say.

Kaoru's friend was already waiting for her when we arrived at the middle school, so she quickly said good bye and ran off.

"Oh my god Misao!" Kaoru exclaimed as she approached her friend.

"Why are you so happy?"

"I'm sleeping over at Kenshin's!"

"Uh...is your dad going to be ok with that?" Misao asked.

"He won't be home tonight…" Kaoru told her friend. "Besides, I'm just going to help him baby-sit Kenji." She finished off a little disappointed.

"Aren't we a little young to be talking about these things?" their seventh grade friend Megumi said, coming into the conversation.

"What are you talking about Megumi? You are all gaga over that jerk, Kanryu." Kaoru told her defensively.

"As if, why would I like someone like him? You said it, he's a jerk." As Megumi was saying that, said guy passed by and slapped her in the butt.

"Hey!" Megumi spunned angry, "You don't touch this without my permission!"

He just laughed it off as he always did and kept walking.

"He's a jock, what did you expect?" Kaoru told her sarcastically.

"Yeah whatever I am not "gaga" over him." Megumi assured the younger girls even though everybody knew, Megumi included that she had a big crush on the older boy.


	3. Chapter 3

Hello, thank you for reading!

I have a clear story in my head,it's just taking me a bit longer to get around to it,but I do want to finish it and hopefully you are there to read it.

Thanks for giving this story a chance!

Fifth grade was hard, as Kaoru was finding out. Luckily for her she could use that as an excuse to go over to visit Kenshin.

"I don't get it." It was the nutrition break and Kaoru was with Misao and other girls from her class. "Fractions are so hard!"

Misao and the other girls looked away, they weren't having trouble with math at all. "Hey,at least this way Kenshin won't think you're stalking him." Misao told her with a grin. Even though Kaoru wanted to get angry at Misao, the mention of Kenshin dulled her anger. She smiled dreamily.

"You do realize that he's in high school and probably thinks very little of fifth graders, right?" One of the other girls said.

"That's not true!" Kaoru exclaimed but deep down she knew that was the truth. She had seen how Kenshin had looked at that dark haired girl the day before and it was obvious to anybody with eyes that he had a crush on her. "You're probably right. I think he might like Enishi's sister." She was forced to admit.

"Who's sister?" one of the girls asked.  
"He's a seventh grader, he's in Megumi's math class." Misao responded.

"Oh."

The nutrition bell rang and the girls headed back to class.

In the meantime, while Kaoru was in nutrition discussing Kenshin, Kenshin was with his friends discussing Tomoe.

"So you expect us to believe you when you say that she was actually waiting for you by the front entrance just to give you your soda back?" Soji asked incredously.

I had to smile,or better,smirk at my friends. "Believe it or not, that's how it was." My friends were staring at me unbelieving when the unthinkable happened. There she was, standing before us in all her glory.

"Excuse me, but may I speak with you for a minute?" Her soft voice left all three of us just gaping at her. I slowly nod and follw her away from the prying eyes of my nosy friends.

As I stood there in front of her, I shifted my weight from foot to foot not knowing what to say,but she broke the silence first.

"I wanted to apologize for the younger brother's rudeness yesterday." I was stunned. She was apologizing to me? For something that she had not even done? I didn't know how to react. Following my complete silence,she continued to speak. "He's five years younger than me and ever since our mother died when he was a toddler,I have cared for him while our father works and he's becomed attached to me."

I give her a sympathetic smile. "Don't worry, I wasn't angry or anything. I have a younger brother too and after our parents died I've becomed his only source of comfort."

She looks at me tenderly. She understands my situation perfectly. I don't know what to say after that. She suddenly takes my hand, "If you ever need a friend, I am here."

I feel my heart racing and my hands getting clammy. "Th—thanks! For everything." She smiles that tender smile again and I literally rush from her side. When I return to my friends,they are waiting expectantly for any news.

"So?"

"What? It's not what you two are thinking, ok? She just wanted to apologize for her bratty brother."

"Oho! So she has one of those too?" Soji asks with a smirk, but I had something to counter-attack their verbal mocking.

"She asked if we could be friends." Now it was my time to smirk. The two were wide-eyed and gaping.

"No way."

"Way."

The bell announcing the end of nutrition rang, "Let's get going."

"You're just asking to get your ass handed to you if you start hanging out with her." Hajime warned.

"I don't care. She wants to be friends and so do I."

Nobody said anything more, there was nothing anybody could say to stop the wheels of destiny that had started to move.


	4. Chapter 4

The days passed and the seasons changed,and so did feelings.

Kenshin had taken Tomoe's offer and had become friends with the beautiful girl. They had bonded over their similarities in raising their brothers from infancy and things had started to take a different path when something happened.

Tomoe had a boyfriend. He had been away in the military, but he had returned and proposed to Tomoe. She was very confused.

In the one hand,she had been dating him since she was a freshman in high school,but they had known each other since infancy,and on the other hand,she had come to really like the freshman boy whom shared similarities to her life. Since she didn't have any friends,she could not find anyone to confide her confusions to.

"You…you're what?" Kenshin was astonished. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. The black-haired beauty looked just as pained,but she had made her choice.

"I really like you, but Akira is the love of my life." Even as those words came out of her mouth, she doubted them. She had given a lot of thought on the issue and had decided on stability. No matter how much she liked the red-head,he was still a child and she was about to graduate and enter the adult world. A world where Kenshin couldn't follow her to just yet.

He let his head droop. That had been a huge blow to him. He might have only been 14,but his feelings were real and intense, but he also didn't want to hurt her feelings seeing how disturbed she was,so he hid his pain and smiled at her.

"Good luck,and thank you for telling me." He started to walk away before his tears could spill out before her, but she called out to him. He halted for a bit.

"Wait!" she elevated her voice slightly. He turned to look at her and noticed that her eyes were moist with unspilled tears, but he just waived at her and departed. He felt wreched. He didn't want to face the world, so he headed straight home and plopped himself heavily on his bed.

"What's eating you?" his cousin popped into his room. Kenshin found it odd that he was even bothering,since he never seemed to care before.

"I was just dumped." He eyes were red and swollen when he turned to face his cousin.

"Whoa, what are you a girl?"

"That's not it, but what do you care?"

"You sound like a girl. Anyway, been there, done that, and trust me you'll get over it."

Kenshin was flabbergasted by his cousin's concern. Maybe he should give him some credit, it couldn't be easy to be taking care of two kids at age 25.

"Thanks."

"Whatever,just please stop moping cus you're scaring the brat."

"Crap! Iforgot all about Kenji!"

"Duh? Don't worry, he's been fed and bathe."

"Sorry for making you do that."

"Don't make it a habit, ok?" His cousin walked out of the room. He felt like crap, he had forgotten about his little brother and his cousin had to pick up his tab. He got out of bed and went to take a quick shower. The water made him feel better.

Once he felt refreshed,he went to get Kenji from Kaoru's. He knew that it was too much to ask of his cousin to take care of Kenji for an extended amount of time and knew that Kenji liked Kaoru anyway.

"Hey Kaoru, I came to pick up Kenji."

Kaoru came out with Kenji trailing behind her. "Was he a bother?" Even though he knew that Kaoru liked Kenji, he still felt compelled to ask.

"No, he's always such a cute kid!" Kaoru gushed giving the kid a bear hug.

"C'mon Kenji, let's go home." But Kenji clung to Kaoru's legs and shook his head. "I don't want to." He pouted.

"Kenji, c'mon, Kaoru needs to do homework and you need to get to bed."

Kenji still didn't want to let go and it took some coaxing from Kaoru before he went to Kenshin. "Hey why are your eyes so red?" Since she had a crush the size of Jupiter on Kenshin, Kaoru could notice when things were off with him.

"I can't lie to you. Tomoe dumped me." Kaoru had to try really hard to suppress a grin.

"Why? I thought you two were really close?"

"We weren't dating, but I thought she liked me. Her boyfriend came back and proposed. Who get's married that young?"

Kaoru may seem mature in some cases, but she was still only 10 and didn't know what to answer to that. She just stared at him wide-eyed.

"Don't worry, it's not like _I_ was planning on marrying her."

Nobody said any more. They said their good-byes to Kaoru and headed home. He didn't want to think of Tomoe. He just hoped that he got a good night's sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

Kenshin and Tomoe weren't the only ones having love problems. The younger kids were too.

"So Kaoru, what are you going to do now that Kenshin is a free man?" Misao asked her best friend.

"I don't know, it's not like he sees me as a girl."

"Maybe you should stop being so tomboyish." Misao offered.

Misao and Kaoru were in fifth grade and their nutritions and lunches differed from the seventh and eight graders,but their lunches overlapped for a few minutes and Megumi would join them.

"What happened to you?" Kaoru asked concerned as Megumi approached sporting a new bruise on her face.

"I was just being stupid." She replied, but the girls knew better. Megumi had finally admitted that she had a crush on the eighth grader, Kanryu, and had started going out with him, but after she started dating him, her friends noticed a change. She was constantly bruised, but she would always just respond with the cryptic "I was being stupid". The girls suspected that Kanryu was beating her, but they were too young to quite grasp the situation and Megumi's dad was hardly ever around to notice either. She was an orphan, her mother having died when she was a kid, and her dad was a famous doctor,which left Megumi alone for a long time and an easy target for a psycho in the making.

"So, Tae, how's it going with that kid, what's his name?" Megumi changed the subject,instead teasing another one of the girls.

"What are you saying Megumi?" Tae exclaimed, " I don't have a crush on him,why does everyone think that?"

"Because you react like that." Megumi stated.

"I don't have crush on Sanouske, it's just that he owes me some money."

"Wow so young and already swinddling money from others?" Megumi said sarcastically.

"We're neighbors and his family is kinda odd,so he keeps asking me for money,money which I still haven't seen." Tae told Megumi. It was true that she was mildly drawn to the older boy, but not enough to lose sleep over him. Her money was more important than a boy, she was only ten afterall.

"So Misao, how are things going with that cousin of yours, huh? Isn't it kinda sick that you have a crush on your cousin?" Megumi teased.

Misao had a sharp tongue and lashed out before thinking. "Well at least I'm not having sex with some jerk!" she spat. Megumi was taken aback. Everyone knew it, but nobody said it out loud, nobody. For a moment nobody said anything, if a pin was dropped,it could probably be heard for miles, that's how quiet the girls got, but then Tae broke the silence.

"Hey, do you guys want to come over sometime and eat?" Her parents owned a Japanese restaurant where she also worked part time. That's how she earned her allowance and why she wanted her hard earned money back.

"Oh yes!" Kaoru exclaimed with more zeal than nessesary. Misao and Megumi remained silent,but the tension seemed to have dissipated for the moment.

"I gotta go." Megumi stood up abruptly and briskly walked away.

"Misao, you shouldn't have said that!" Kaoru scolded.

"Yeah, my bad, but she pissed me off. I didn't think."

"Of course you didn't." A girl who had been silent the whole time finally spoke up. She was Tae's twin and Misao's other best friend.

"Sae! Good to have you back." Misao said sarcastically. Sae glared at her. "Anyway, did she really think that we didn't know?"

"Nah, I'm sure she knew,but was pretending not to." Said Misao.

"The bell's about to ring, should we get going?" Kaoru asked.

The girls got up just as the bell rang.

Meanwhile, Megumi was in the bathroom, crying and trying to keep her lunch in her stomach.


	6. Chapter 6

The relationship had become awkward between Kenshin and Tomoe. They still greeted each other in passing, but they no longer spend time together. Tomoe was focusing all of her time on her fiancé and her coming high school graduation. Kenshin was focusing on being a good older brother and forgetting Tomoe. Things were complicated. Then one day, everything changed again.

Tomoe's boyfriend had been called back to duty.

"I know that I had said we would get married as soon as you graduated, but I have been called back. When I return, the first thing I'll do is marry you. I promise."

Tomoe was not a very expressive person and she could not express her anguish. Akira thought that maybe she was getting cold feet and determined to do even better in the military so that she wouldn't feel ashamed of marrying him.

"I love you." Were his parting words.

"I…too…" No matter how hard she tried, the words wouldn't come out. Akira left heart-broken. After he was deployed, he called Tomoe a few times, but no matter how much she wanted to express her feelings towards him, something was stopping her. It was as if her tongue was tied in a knot and all their conversations were monosyllable answers on her part. Usually it was Akira that did all the talking, with Tomoe just responding yes or no.

One particular call, he tried again, hoping that since she was not seeing his face she wouldn't feel shy.

"I love you." But there was no answer. Then, "Good Night."

Tomoe hanged the phone and a silent tear ran down her cheeks. On the other side of the world Akira too shed a tear for his doomed love.

He had known the Yukishiro family all his life and he had never thought of anybody else to be his wife. It had always been Tomoe for him, but he had never been sure if she felt the same way since she was not very expressive. That was the reason why he had joined the military after graduating high school. He thought that if he was away Tomoe would realize how much he meant to her, but to no avail. Tomoe had not shown much glee seeing his return, even when he received such a warm welcome. He tried to quench his doubts, but he had never been sure of her love and that pained him since he had always been in love with her.

That was the last phone call. A few days later they received a call that Akira Kiyosato had died in action. It was the first time that Tomoe showed any real emotion and broke down crying. She realized that she really did love him, and now it was too late to tell him. She knew that he thought she didn't love him because she was unable to express herself, but it was quite the opposite. Yes, she was drawn to the red-head boy, but Akira had been her only love since the beginning.

His body was delivered a couple of days later. Tomoe had composed herself and was back to being her same stoic self. Some people whispered, talked, since she wasn't crying over her dead fiancé. Little did they know that she had cried her eyes out when she found out, in the privacy of her home. She wanted to talk to Akira, but she wanted to talk to him alone, before he was put to rest forever. She circled the casket, silent tears slipping down her pale cheeks, her black eyes lingering on Akira's peaceful face. He looked like he was sleeping. She brought her hand to his face and the moment she touched it, the spell was broken. He was cold. He didn't feel right. Akira was not there, not anymore.

At nine o'clock pm the mourners were ushered out of the funeral home, but Tomoe had not had a chance to tell Akira everything she couldn't say when he was alive.

"I…please…I…want to talk to him." She begged, in her soft voice. The funeral home director could see her pain in her eyes and allowed her to have her alone time with him.

"Five minutes."

"Thank you." She walked to the now lonely casket and she peered down at the body for a long time before speaking.

"You…you're not really there, right? You're in a better place. You have to be." She paused and touched his face again. Again that strange sensation that he really wasn't there in that cold casket. "I…please forgive me. I didn't deserve you….you…we're too good for me…I loved you." She finally said the three words that Akira had wanted to hear all his life.

Tomoe heard a faint "Thank you" when she uttered those three words and she started to cry harder. "You deserved a better girl. I didn't appreciate you enough."

The funeral home director came to tell her, her five minutes were up. She nodded. She touched the cold flesh once more, "Good bye, Akira. Rest in peace now." And she walked out of the funeral home without turning back.

News travelled fast and as soon as Kenshin heard of Tomoe's misfortune he rushed to her side. No matter what had happened between them, he knew how much she must be suffering. He found her at home, arranging some flowers.

"Tomoe!" The black-haired beauty turned to face the voice and there he was, the red-head that had made her heart doubt. "I…heard…sorry."

She shook her head. "Thank you for coming."

He didn't know what to say, so he just went and sat next to her. They remained in silence for a long time, just enjoying each other's company, until a jealous Enishi came to break the mood.

"Sister!"

"What is it, Enishi?" she asked concerned.

"I…uh…what is he doing here?" the boy pointed towards Kenshin.

"He's a friend."

The kid glared at Kenshin, "I will never give you my sister! Never!"

"But I…" Kenshin started to say, but Tomoe was the one who spoke. "Enishi, you are being rude to our guest."

"Akira just died! Have you forgotten? You were going to abandon me for him, and now that he's gone you're replacing him with that thing?" Kenshin could take all the insults in the world, but he wasn't going to let anybody insult Tomoe, even her own brother. He walked over to Enishi and smacked him so hard across the face that he fell back. "Don't ever talk about your sister like that again! What kind of person do you think she is? She's hurting right now, don't make things harder for her!" Enishi's lip had been cut and blood was trickling down his chin. He glared at Kenshin with such hate that if looks could kill, Kenshin would have been made mince meat. Enishi got up and ran out of the room. Turning back to face Tomoe, Kenshin apologized.

"Please forgive my brother for his rudeness. When he found out that Akira had asked for my hand in marriage, he threw a fit. I realize that it's not healthy for him to be that attached to me, that is why I am going away to college."

Kenshin couldn't help but smile tenderly at Tomoe. She really was an admirable girl. And even at his young age, he really did love her.

The words came out of his mouth before he even had time to react. "I love you." At the sound of his voice saying those words, her eyes opened wide. Seeing what he had just done, he tried to retract his words, but it was too late. They had been said.

"I…I'm sorry. This is not the time for me to be saying these things!"

"Thank you, but what is it that you can love from someone as selfish as I?"

"Everything. You are not selfish. You care for your brother when you can be out there having fun, you smile so tenderly at everyone. You are the purest girl I have ever met. You are more awkward than most, but that's what makes you special."

"I…could never tell Akira that I loved him…"

"I'm sure he knew." She emphatically shook her head. "I have never been very expressive. I never showed how happy he made me."

He didn't know what to tell her in order to comfort her. "Well then, uh…next time you fall in love make sure you tell them so they know."

She nodded slowly and thanked him.

Kenshin got up and prepared to leave. He was feeling self-conscious over all the mushy stuff he had just uttered and wanted to get out of there. "Bye, Tomoe, I hope we can continue to be friends."


	7. Chapter 7

The days kept passing, but nobody was making much progress with their love lives. Kaoru still couldn't get Kenshin to see her as more than his cute neighbor, and Kenshin wasn't sure how long was too long after somebody's death to pursue a new love. The rest of the ones that were in love weren't faring much better, but they didn't necessarily care.

Misao stretched her arms to the sky. "I am so relieved!"

"What happened?" Her friend Sae, asked.

"What did you expect was going to happen? He rejected me." She said with a smile. If anyone saw her they wouldn't think she had just been turned down by her crush.

"And you're ok with that?"

"I am. Actually I'm a lot happier now! Now I can focus on being me!"

Sae rolled her eyes. Misao was the type to rebound fast. Of all the girls, Misao was the most exuberant.

Kaoru was pouting since she had seen Kenshin with the girl he liked and they looked too comfortable with each other. Megumi was more withdrawn than usual. A heavy atmosphere fell on the group of girls.

"What's eating you?" Misao asked Megumi. She didn't seem to be carrying any new bruises, so Misao wanted to know why she wasn't poking fun at her or any of the other girls.

"No—nothing. I just don't feel like getting into stupid arguments with people younger than me."

"Get over yourself, you're 12."

"I am 12." She said,as if trying to confirm it to herself.

"What? You're being weird!" Misao exclaimed.

"I am 12, you're right. I'm not that much older than you."

"Yeah, you're 12, we're 10, that annoying boyfriend of yours is 13 or 14, Kenshin's 14, Kenji is 5, Sanosuke is 11, my cousin Aoshi is 13, did I miss anyone?" Misao started to list all the people she could remember in order to tease Megumi, but she didn't take the bait.

"Something is seriously wrong with you, if you don't have a snappy remark."

"I…think I'm pregnant." Megumi dropped that bomb on the group of unsuspecting girls.

All the girls gaped. "How…how the hell does a 12 year old get pregnant!" Misao exclaimed. Other's in the vicinity turned to look. Megumi's head drooped. "Shut up you idiot!" Sae snapped. Tae and Kaoru exchaged glances. They were at a lost for words. They were ten, none of them had even kissed a boy,let alone had sex, so they didn't know what adviceto offer their slightly older friend.

"Have you told your dad?" Kaoru asked.

Megumi emphatically shook her head. "What am I supposed to tell him? 'Oh hey dad, guess what? The first guy who asked me to open my legs got me pregnant'? I can't tell him, he'll think it's his fault since he's never home." She finished glumly.

"Um…does…does Kanryu know?" When Kaoru's words reached Megumi, her face changed from gloom to horror. "No!" she exclaimed. "He can't know!"

"Uh, Megumi, he's gonna find out eventually, it's not like you're not gonna get huge." Misao pointed out.

"He…he has nothing to do with this!"

"Whatever, I don't feel like sitting here listening to this." Sae stood up and dusted herself.  
"Not of word of this to anybody. I mean I don't even know if I'm really preggo." Megumi warned.

"We have to go get a pregnancy test!" Kaoru offered.

"Yeah, you go do that." Misao told her sarcastically. "I wonder what they'll say when they see a bunch of kids trying to buy a pregnancy kit."

"But, we have to do something!"

"Yeah, have an abortion." Said Misao, somewhat coldly.

"How do you know these things?" Megumi inquired.

"I'm not _that_ naïve." Sae and Misao left the group. Out of the 5, they were the most down-to-earth and cynical.

"I can't believe she might actually be pregnant, especially not from that creep." Misao shuddered just thinking of Kanryu.

"Speak of the devil." Sae was pointing to the direction of where Kanryu was with his friends. He was laughing without a care in the world.

"I want to smash that stupid face of his!" Misao's family was a martial arts family and Misao had been training since she was a child. That was part of the reason why she was so confident. She knew she had power and if her power wasn't enough, she had the backing of her family.

"He's not worth it. He'll end up dead in a ditch soon enough." Sae assured her. Hearing those words, followed by the mental image of a dead Kanryu lying upside down in some ditch with maggots eating his flesh made Misao almost sadistically happy.

"That smile of your's is creeping me out!" Sae exclaimed.

Kanryu had noticed that Megumi was acting strange and he was getting worried. Not because he actually cared for her, but because it might bring him some problems. He knew that if he asked her

straight out she was going to deny anything and everything, so he set his eyes on one of her stupid friends as he called them.

He had been stalking them, just waiting for one of them to leave the group so he could approach her, but they all seemed stuck at the hip for some reason. He gritted his teeth. " Damn stupid girls!" He murmured. He was regretting messing around with Megumi already. In the beginning she had been amusing, since she had some fire in her, but he had broken her too soon and she had just become a mindless puppet. It wasn't that he didn't like the maleability she had now, but part of the reason why he humured her in the first place was because she kept him entertained. Before, he almost had to force himself on her, but as of late he didn't even had to ask. It was easy too. She was an only child and her mom had died a long time ago and her dad was a doctor so she was always alone. He too was an only child and his parents were never home either, so having sex whereever he pleased was easy. He grit his teeth again. He was almost a freshman in high school, why was he wasting his time on kids? No matter how hot Megumi was, or how well developed she was for a 12 year old, she was still a kid. He needed to look higher, for girls that actually mattered, like a high school girl. He was, afterall, more a high school kid than a middle schooler.

Sae and Misao passed by him, giggling about something. He managed to get a hold of Misao's braid and pulled on it to reign her in, like a horse.

"What the hell?" She spun around to glare at the person who had pulled her hair. "Oh it's you? What the fuck do you want?"

He was more than a little amused by Misao's fiery personality. His lips twisted into a malicious grin. "I need to talk to you…" he paused to look at Sae, "…alone."

"Yeah right! As if I'd actually go anywhere with you."

"I need to ask about Megumi." He put on a concerrned face. "Please?"

Misao glared at him, but then her face lit up. "Ok, since it's about Megumi."

"So meet me here, after school." He said, his own face smiling.

"Deal!" Misao smirked as she walked away with Sae.

"What was that all about? What are you planning?"

"Ideally I'd love to castrate him, but I think that's illegal, so we need to find out what is going on with Megumi then tattle on him. Think about it, if that moron is really pregnant, he'll want to do something to her, so we need to grab him by the balls so that he won't be able to do anything to her, because if something were to happen to her, he'd be in deep shit."

"Ok, so are you going to tell him all that?"

"No, I'm not telling him anything…yet. I just want to know how much he knows."

"You are one scary little girl."

"Either way, you're going to come with me to meet him so you know where I'll be and you can tell Aoshi for me, yeah?"

"Ok."

The two friends headed to their classroom hand in hand.


End file.
